Monday, May 27, 2013

Chicago Taco Tour

-Eating like a Mayan King in the Windy City

We hope you've been enjoying our Mexican Fiesta special this month of May. If you scroll down you'll see "Tags" of different topics relating to each and every story posted here. "Mexican Food" is near the top. My favorite food to eat I cant ever get enough. Traveling Mexico on a culinary related itinerary is still on the upper half of my bucket list. God forbid that trip should never happen I can at least know I've ate it well while on earth here in Chicago. There's been some great taco round-up's of the 1000's of different offerings we have in this city and this week I want to add one more. Ladies and cavemen, I bring to you, 16 tacos you wont find everywhere. These offerings are worth seeking out when you get bored of the same old style but still want to eat something stuffed in a tortilla.
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Tacos de Canasta

"Basket Tacos" are typically found found being sold on a street corner somewhere in Mexico City. If you know where to go in Chicago you can find them in the same fashion. Usually these are ate outside of restaurants because they're pre-made at home and placed in a basket to steam then sold somewhere on the streets. I call them taco sliders (small and steamed) and really like the ones served at La Chilangueada in the Cragin neighborhood.

Tacos de Canasta at La Chilangueada

I cant vouch for the authenticity of these little .99 cent gems but have no problem calling them good. They may or may not be made to order, if they are then they arent the real deal but a few of the filling options inside them are. When tacos de canasta are made they're done so to sit around for a while so stewed meats are typically used. The signature "Chilango" however has skirt steak, bacon, chopped cheap hot dogs and onions. Unconventional? Maybe. Tasty? Definitely!

The insides

Salsa is an option but other than that you just pop these lil tacos in your mouth and savor the flavors. I've found that when ordering them to go they get extra greasy but in a good way where the whole thing steams together even more so than when dining in. I've noticed these are one of the best selling items at this awesome little spot on Fullerton dedicated to some of the popular street eats of Mexico City. As good as the Chilango mix is, the Chicharron con Chile is addicting. I can eat ten easy if you put them in front of me.

Chicharron con Chile Taco de Canasta

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Tacos de Birrieria

It's too hard to name any single taco "the best in Chicago" and anyone who's doing so is either biased or never been anywhere other than Taco Bell. But we can all have our lists of the ones we love best and included in mine are the Tacos de Birrieria at Chicago staple Birrieria Zaragoza. If you've never been, Goat is what they do and they do it really, really well. The place has a long list of loyal customers including me. Take a seat at the front where you can watch your tacos tortillas being made and get a lesson in good cooking from the family matriarch aka Mom.

Fresh Tortillas being made

A feature post is coming but for now let me just tell you why I love the slow roasted goat tacos here. First off the meat itself is amazing. Be not afraid, it's fresh and farm raised and tastes like a richer pot roast than you might normally eat. They make some of the best tortillas on site in front of you too. These hold together the goat meat which is juicy from being cooked in a pot full of flavor. Add to this what might be my favorite salsa in the city (Family Secret Hot Roasted Tomato) and I'm in taco heaven.

Tacos de Birrieria from Birrieria Zargoza

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Tacos AlambresLa Lagartija on Ashland off Ogden is a chibbqking favorite. Their shrimp tacos are one of the best tacos of any type to be found around town. They also have really good al pastor and serve signature worthy alambres which in Spanish means wire. In many cases alambres are cooked on a skewer and then removed and served with tortillas. But they've evolved into something a little different. While the meat can vary, bacon, sliced peppers and melted cheese are always included. Served with a steam tray of warm tortillas, which at La Lagartija come homemade, these are make your own tacos. Very good ones.

Alambres at La Lagartija

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Tacos de Fritangas

We're lucky yo have a great cyber space place like LTHforum in Chicago. I love to get around and explore what our city has to offer but could never cover the entire area without missing multiple gems. Taquerias specifically which we have tons of. There's so many and most of them offer similar menus while some places execute the offerings better. But some also serve things you wont find at many if any other places. La Chaparrita was rec'd by one of LTH's founding fathers and he then spread word. This style is native to Mexico City and involves the use of a charola for the cooking of the meats.

Recently I was with Grub Seeker and Co. and we were cruising around the southside looking for tacos amongst other eats. I spied a place called Mario's that had a picture of an al pastor spit and upon further investigation saw said spit in operation along with another mention of them being their specialty. In we went. Tacos al Pastor came to Mexico City with Lebanese immigrants who were creating something similar to shawarma. As far as the cooking, slicing and crispness goes these were perfection. The problem was they weren't spiced all that well. Rather plain tastes ruined what could of been truly great.

Taco al Pastor con Pina from Mario's

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Fully Loaded Steak Tacos

El Milagro's monster steak tacos were originally featured back when this whole exploration first got started and they're still one of my favorite tacos in Chicago. If the name of the place sounds familiar that's because you've probably seen their tortillas and chips for sale which is their main business but they also have a couple places to eat. On 26th street you can find their signature tacos made with a hunk of grilled skirt steak placed on two of their tortillas spread with rice and beans and topped with cabbage. Two of these is all I need.

Signature Skirt Steak Taco from Taqueria El Milagro on 26th Street

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Veggie Tacos

If you're a regular reader than you know we dont do too many veggie dishes over here, plenty of other places you can go to find Chicago's best dishes without meat. Heck, hit up Next while you can. But there is one place I do get veggie tacos from now and then. L'Patron was already featured in the Fish Taco Tour in which I mentioned it wouldn't be the only time you saw them on here. This wont be their last feature either. The Rajas taco which is made with strips of roasted poblano makes me think I could just eat them if I had to go Veggie. But then I'd be suffering watching everyone else eat their steak, chorizo and al pastor. Pass.

Good Veggie tacos found on Diversey in Logan Square

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Walking Tacos

Found at the Take Out Window at Big Star

If you've ever been to your home states fair you've most likely seen someone eating a walking taco. I've seen several variations including one served in a waffle cone and ones like they have at Big Star. A bag of Fritos with a meat-bean mixture added in with green onions and cheese makes for a tasty late night snack on the walk home from the bars. Plus at $2 it's a pretty damn good deal.

The insides

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Taco Truck Tacos

Slowly, no wait, VERY slowly food trucks with people cooking on board are starting to pop up around Chicago. In fact I spied one recently in the wee hours of the evening on Ashland parked outside what looked to be a popular night club. I was hungry and wondering what I was going to eat and seeing it helped me decide. Tacos and tamales were both stuffed to the brim with meat and good for late night eats.

Everyone could use access to mobile tacos...

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Tacos Arabes

Cemitas
Peubla on North avenue is a regular in my rotation that needs to get
it's own post on here. Not they need the publicity as this is deservedly so one of Chicago's most well known spots for great Mexican food you wont find many others doing. As seen on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives.

Specialty Tacos from Cemitas Peubla

Tacos Arabes or "Arab Style Tacos" come from the Puebla region of Mexico where they're very popular. Heavily seasoned spit roasted pork is sliced like gyros and goes into a tortilla more like pita bread with a similar thickness to flour tortillas. These tacos were brought to Mexico from people who arrived from Iraq. In fact at first they were served with a yogurt sauce like tahini until it was replaced with salsa to please the locals palates. Cemitas Puebla's smoky chipotle salsa is also in the running for best in city, as are these tacos.

Inside of the Tacos Arabes

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Tacos de Mariscos

If you ride around certain parts of the city you'll see that there seems to be an abundance of Mexican seafood houses. I'm not even talking about El Barco and Mariscos el Veneno which are both great in their own right, there's tons more than just those two though. It seems like alot of people from the Nayarit region of Mexico find their way to Chicago and open up a mariscos place when they do. I've decided that these places need to be further explored as theres so many of them and not much info out there on them.

Somewhat new Mexican seafood shop on Elston at Irving Park

I read over at LTH about a couple that were worth it and tried some tacos from one of them recently. Riveria Maya is a cute little BYOB with a really nice family behind it. I tried both a fish and shrimp taco and was pleasantly surprised by what I got. Instead of the more normal batter fried fish and shrimp they serve a chopped up version almost like hot ceviche cooked in lime, butter and garlic. Under $7 and I was stuffed.

Fish and Shrimp Tacos from Riviera Maya

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Tacos Dorados

Chicago doesn't seem to have many places doing this popular style of taco. But if there's going to be any it's most likely to come from the
Eastside of the city. It seems that there's some tradition of the deep
fried taco in these parts and the towns across the border in Northwest Indiana.
Take Taqueria Hacienda at 97th and Commercial as example.

Locals Favorite on the Eastside of the City

Hacienda is a nice stop for those seeking their crispy taco
fix. It's labeled as both a taqueria and a restaurant but it's more the
latter. There's many options for Mexican in the area and I can vouch this place
is good one. On top of this the people working have been really kind my visits. They have tacos dorados on the menu and you get
them in three's with rice and beans. I was tempted by the steak offering
but stuck with my traditional filling of picadillo aka ground beef.
It's mixed with some potatoes and veggies as well as lima beans and was
quite pleasing as far as seasoning.

Taco Dorados from Hacienda

These weren't deep fried whole (meat in the tortilla folded
over/held together with tooth picks) aka "Closed". Just the
shell was fried fresh then the beef went in followed by the toppings aka
"open" style. Nonetheless the shell was fried fresh and remained crunchy
and the filling was really good. Well executed. I tried their dorados
de papa (potato) and they too were quite tasty while fried closed. Next
time I need to ask them to do the dorados de papa with picadillo instead
of potato, fried closed. I'm betting I'd really like those.

Tacos Dorados de Papa

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Longy Tacos

Speaking of hard shell tacos anyone ever had a Longy? They were created by a guy who used to run a long gone bar called Longy's in Lombard. A Tribune article from 1991 explains how the family who runs/opened El Zarape in Wheaton brought these popular eats back to being available in this area.

El Zarape in Wheaton, IL

When the Jeminez family came to the suburbs from Mexico City in 1969,
husband Jesse took a job cooking at Longy's. They saved up and inched
closer to the dream of owning their own place. Now they have a
few spots including the Santa Fe Cafe in Glen Ellyn. Longy tacos are
corn tortillas filled with a beef and refried bean mixture making for an almost creamy filling. They're pan fried until crispy and I've tried them from El
Zarape and also Santa Fe and have noticed they're available on other
menus around this way. Tastes for them have come since my first bite so
you know I like. Looking forward to getting back there.

Longy Taco from Santa Fe Cafe in Glen Ellyn, IL

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Breakfast Tacos

I've never been to Austin, TX but when I do I look forward to trying some breakfast tacos
which are one of the regional eats they're famous for. We dont have
many spots doing those here in Chicago. Someone needs to come here with one
of them food trucks you find all over there.

Estrella Negra on Fullerton just east of Western

In the meantime I find my fix at Estrella Negra, a little Latin influenced BYOB. One of the best breakfast (served 11a-3p daily) deals in the city. Six bucks gets you three tacos with choice of chorizo or bacon and eggs topped with jalapenos, cilantro, tomatoes and sour cream served with some excellent salsa verde.

Excellent Breakfast Tacos at Estrella Negra

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Fusion Tacos

Making tacos with Asian influenced ingredients became a thing when an food truck in LA made them so popular that you can find them all over the globe now. We have a few spots in Chicago including a relatively new place out by Midway called Dos Ricco's doing Mexican-Asian cooking. I'm a sucker for fusion Asian and will get a full report on this place up ASAP. I liked a few things and the taco was one of them.

Korean Carne Asada Taco from Dos Ricco's

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Cheesy Tacos

Popular taco stop at Blue Island and Damen

Raymond's has a few locations and there's many who swear by them. If you go in there on a weekend around lunch the place is packed. If you go there at 2am you'll find the same situation just different clientele. The sheriffs love it and so do the folks who just got released nearby. I've never had a burger but get cravings for cheesy tacos when drinking and sometimes even when I'm not.

Cheesy Tacos from Raymond's

If you order your tacos with cheese here you dont get shredded chihuahua. They take a slice of American cheese and place it between two corn tortillas basically making it a quesadilla. Only after it's cooked to a golden hue and the cheese is melted do your choice of meat and toppings go on. The meat is ok not great but they go thru tons so it's always freshly cooked. It might not be "Authentic" so to say but tell that to all the Spanish speaking families chowing them down on Sunday mornings. Count me a fan like them.

6 comments:

I've tried a number of pastor tacos on the south side and they seem to have that common problem-- the technique may be right but they just don't spice it that much. It's always a bummer after you've seen what looks like an awesome spit. Atotonilcos on 47th is one I remember being like that, to name one. Maybe it's a reflection of a regional style among those who mostly settled in that area but the only one I've had down there that I really liked was at the placed named Al Pastor that Serious Eats pointed me to and was in my Grub St. taco slideshow.

I've wondered about La Chilangueada for a long time but the dated signage kind of put me off... a lot of lame "Mexican family restaurants" with that look. I will check it out. As for breakfast burritos, I do not understand why those don't seem to exist here, they are absolutely a highlight of hitting Austin (and Austin isn't short on highlights). They're not that hard to do-- even McDonald's can do them reasonably well-- so why don't we have them?

I love the canasta tacos from La Chilangueada, and in answer to your question, they are much better than any I've seen on the streets of Mexico City. I say "seen," because I have never had the guts to try one of the sweaty little devils on the street in Mexico City. La Chilangueada's are very delicious, possibly in part because they are delivered fresh and to order, which in one important sense means they are inauthentic, but that inauthenticity is an improvement ... the street version I've seen in Mexico City has been sitting around for an unknowable length of time in the vendors' baskets and have always just looked greasy and junky to me. (Finally, the "Chilango" or Mexico City-style does in my experience often mean nothing more than "with a hot dog chopped up in it" ... and don't get me started on hot dogs in Mexico City, another item I find is best observed from a distance.)

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